3 Projects for 2-Year Colleges Doing Institutional Research

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count (http://www.achievingthedream.org) takes data-sharing a step further than the other two studies do. The project not only gathers data on colleges but also helps them collect the information and build their institutional-research capacities.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count takes data-sharing a step further than the other two studies do. The project not only gathers data on colleges but also helps them collect the information and build their institutional-research capacities.

The project focuses on using research to design ways to help more community-college students -- particularly minority students and those from low-income families -- earn degrees or certificates or transfer to four-year institutions.

Ultimately our goal is to make sure that every college can do the research themselves," says Thomas R. Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. The center is a partner with Achieving the Dream. "There are a million questions that a college could ask about itself, and there's no way outside researchers could get at all of that."

This article appeared in the June 5th, 2006 publication of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

3 Projects for 2-Year Colleges Doing Institutional Research

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count takes data-sharing a step further than the other two studies do. The project not only gathers data on colleges but also helps them collect the information and build their institutional-research capacities.

The project focuses on using research to design ways to help more community-college students -- particularly minority students and those from low-income families -- earn degrees or certificates or transfer to four-year institutions.

Ultimately our goal is to make sure that every college can do the research themselves," says Thomas R. Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College. The center is a partner with Achieving the Dream. "There are a million questions that a college could ask about itself, and there's no way outside researchers could get at all of that."

This article appeared in the June 5th, 2006 publication of the Chronicle of Higher Education.